Colby’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Colby. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1882, a post office was established near the center of Thomas County. Area homesteaders lived under harsh conditions in sod houses, creating demand for a town to provide lumber and other provisions to incoming settlers. J.R. Colby, a local land assessor and preacher, obtained a patent to establish the town in April 1884, and land was acquired for the town site three miles north of the post office in March 1885. The following month, the Kansas Secretary of State issued the Town Charter. Kansas Gov. John Martin named Colby the county seat in 1885, and the city was incorporated in 1886. The Union Pacific Railroad reached the city in 1887, and the Rock Island Railroad followed the next year.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Colby’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Colby’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewColby, Kansas, 1910: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Colby
See all 10 →
Colby, decade by decade
1990s
3 historic places in Colby
3 places in Colby are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Colby, Kansas (1910) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (5) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.